Our national poet Dionysios Solomos was born in Zakynthos in 1798 and passed away in Corfu in 1857, at the age of 59, due to a stroke. The hymn to Liberty was the poem that was translated into many languages and placed him in the pantheon of the great poets of his era internationally.

He studied in Italy, at the Law School of the University of Pavia, where among others, Vincenzo Monti, Ugo Foscolo, and Elia Giardini taught. There he came into contact with liberal European movements, heard demands for social renewal, and experienced the tension between classicism and romanticism.

His acquaintance with Spyridon Trikoupis was significant, as the eminent historian convinced him to write in the Greek vernacular demotic language, just as Dante did for the Italians. His second important contact was with Nikolaos Mantzaros, with whom he formed a brotherly friendship and who set the hymn to Liberty to music, resulting in its establishment as the national anthem of Greece and Cyprus.

The Free Besieged (1826-1851) – this modern tragedy – will accompany him throughout his poetic creation. His death shocked Greeks and foreign intellectuals and art lovers, who praised him through their works.